Friday, April 25, 2014

You Mean They Were Dumb Before?

This is the pic that accompanied an article from the Usual USAF Source; it's pretty good plane pr0n:

Click to REALLY embiggen. (Air Force photo by Micah Garbarino)

We're posting the pic coz it's a nice shot of a BUFF either leaving or arriving at Tinker AFB in OKC. My final assignment in the AF was at Tinker; I spent a lil over two years there. Just looking at that wide expanse of white ramp space gives me the creeps, mainly coz I remember how miserably hot, humid, and nasty the weather was in the summer. And then there were all those Springtime tornadoes and the occasional winter ice storm. OKC has the worst weather of any medium sized city in the country; it's SO bad that I don't understand why anyone lives in that place by choice.Oh. Now that we've had our warm and fuzzy moment of remembrance, here's that article...

First Smart BUFF Delivered

Technicians
completed the digital upgrades to the first B-52 bomber modernized under the
Combat Network Communications Technology program at Oklahoma City Air Logistics
Complex at Tinker AFB, Okla. CONECT takes "the B-52 from a rotary-dial
phone to a smartphone," Air Force Global Strike Command overseer Alan
Williams said in a release. The new datalinks, systems, and software
allows real time intelligence and targeting data transmission "so that
they can get the most current data" to adapt flight planning en route,
added Williams. OCALC began work on the first B-52 last July under a $76
million low-rate initial production contract with Boeing. AFGSC currently
has funding
in place to upgrade a total of 30 B-52Hs, with eventual plans to install
upgrades on the entire fleet, according to the release. Tinker's 10th Flight
Test Squadron redelivered the first B-52 to Barksdale AFB, La., on April 21.

Hmm, he's configured for landing, but at the current rate he will touch down at the 5 kft remaining, so I'm guessing he's got the power in for a missed approach (practice probably, since it is severe clear).

When I was in HS, we got a tour of a SAC base about 45 min from my home town (Wurtsmith, since decommissioned), and they actually let us crawl up into the crew compartment of a BUFF. Which, for as big as the plane was, were stunningly small. Especially the weapons officers (or whatever they were called) down below. . .

Wurtsmith was the support base for Port Austin AFS, which was about 20 miles north of Harbor Beach. Didja ever visit there? TSMP ran me HARD to try and get assigned there since it was so close to her home. I didn't try very hard to get there for a number of reasons, chief of which was the place was TOO close to the in-laws. I had friends stationed there, and I visited with them every time I went to Harbor Beach in the late '70s.

But about the BUFF's interior... I've been in one, too, and like you I was amazed at how cramped the cockpit is. I can't even imagine flying a 12 hour or longer mission in that small space but the BUFF drivers do it all the time.